Godina izdanja: 1995
Žanr: Džez, Elektronska muzika, Klasična muzika
Izdavač: Mesek
Poreklo: Strani izvođač

Kovács Zsolt/ Sőrés Zsolt/ Tóth Gábor: Tales Vol. 1

Sound-space installation of Tales, etc. ensemble:
Zsolt Kovács — electric guitar, percussion, objects
Zsolt Sőrés — electric violin, synthesiser
Gábor Tóth — cornet, synthesiser

What’s all this about a white coat, what is the essence of music in a “medical sense”? There we are at Bartók 32 Gallery, having gathered at this venue for a (musical) exhibition without a notion of what to expect. We gaze at the wall, that long white one, at the shelves paced at an equal distance, with loads of junk on them. A seemingly haphazard mess, it may well be lifelike, but one feels that urge to tidy it all up. But before they begin to play, let’s venture to ask the question again: so the doctor makes order, tidies up? So the musical exhibition requires music. The shelves still hang, and dressed in white coats the three artists—Zsolt Kovács, Zsolt Sőrés and Gábor Tóth—live up to our expectations and install sounds in the room, or one might say that this sound-installation will leave a trace in the gallery’s space, on the walls, the ceiling and the parquet floor. Plus whatever else. The shelves still hang with the everyday objects (jam jars, balls, cans of cola, short coat, saucepan, etc.). Tóth rises and greets us. Music is on the way, judging by the drums and the way doctor Kovács arranges himself behind them. There’s also an electrically doctored violin and an expensive-looking synthesiser and a guitar, so we can’t be quite off beam, really.

The ensemble Tales, etc. (Mesék stb.) have enjoyed a career spanning a decade, in the course of which they’ve truly delved into the nethermost regions of noise-composition. They’ve published three CD records, and have given concerts, offering the audience a take-away imprint of compositions intended for a single performance, leaving traces of this encounter on the gallery walls and floor only.

At the beginning of the present sound-exhibition the uniqueness and permanence of improvised music seems like an interesting contradiction; however, in a medical sense one cannot establish a musical connection between the given jam session (operation) and the momentary effect (period of rehabilitation), that being a common feature in all music. What we see and hear is more like the materialisation of sounds, a sort of reversed sublimation.

Doctor Kovács works away at the drums, that is, he is tidying up, making order; also large rubber mallets come forth. Forgetting the oath associated with their white coats, Sőrés and Tóth have a go at the objects; there are twelve shelves awaiting them, the number of pieces of music waiting to composed (arranged), and the installation gains its final form in twenty-one minutes or so.

Kovács at the drums concentrates terribly on Sőrés et al—this can be heard from the surges of sounds, the beats of the large mallets and the groundwork of the smaller hammers.

Tales, etc. is supposed to be a percussion group, which is why the use of the objects on the shelves seems rather meticulous, as does the wispy or destructive power of the mallets. One feels that the rhythm of the drum mediates between the many rattles and noises, and does more than keep them together: it actually links them. By deliberate chance Tóth finds the toy recorder, as well as his own voice and an old Hungarian rock melody; he rambles on while Kovács keeps him together. Sőrés methodically sublimates, enjoying his power of creating-composing noises. He gets ready, strikes down, gathers strength, strikes, gathers momentum and waits. Not to install that silly sound when it wants to!

We’re inclined to ask, using a medical term: a concert? But the answer is obviously impossible, because, surprising as it may seem, the emphasis is not on the music. Sounds fill Bartók 32 Gallery for

three quarters of an hour. In the first part, which ended by quite literally beating the drums to pieces, they established the final phase of the exhibition entitled “TWELVE”, a sound-imprint of the noises smashed at the walls, the floor and the space. The hanging or broken shelves and the everyday objects lost their original function of shelf and object, became sound-images, and in a medical sense, the operation was successful.

The second part is the conclusion. The three musicians do not touch the ready work of art, they continue to play on the afore mentioned instruments (guitar, violin, synthesiser) as if sitting at a funeral feast or celebrating the ready work. The sound installation has recently come out on CD as an important reminder, and to shed new light on the singleness of the exhibition. The video film made about and at the event shows how it was all made, and the two twenty-minute tracks contain the entire music of the installation; in other words, the sound-status preceding materialisation.

For purely medical reasons let us buy a CD, and read the instructions carefully or consult our specialist for possible risks and side-effects. If we have any further questions, do not let’s hesitate to call doctor Kovács, Sőrés and Tóth!



Mesékstb. / Talesco.: Vol. 1: Tales, 1995 (73‘07“)
© Laza Lapok és Kovács/Sőrés/Tóth 1995, MSTBCD1
A CD a LAZA LAPOK művészet-közérzeti lap melléklete